Rhys Southan’s text was very interesting. It brought up a lot of ideas that I had never thought of before. For example when he asks the question if you saw a kid drowning in a pond, would you go jump in to help them. The obvious answer is yes, but he compares it to people who are dying of poverty and preventable diseases, that we technically are just here watching them “drown.” This was interesting to me because I had never thought of it like that. Before, when I thought of poverty I just figured there was not much I could do, but maybe there is more I can do? Southan certainly thinks so.

Throughout his text I typically disagreed with him a lot. Specifically when he talks about art and the Effective Altruism. He states that EA is all about making everyone the happiest they can be. So when he talks about art, and how the EA views it, it is confusing. They believe that most art isn’t contributing as utilitarianism, or benefiting the majority. My thought was if someone has to give up art because it is supposed to help someone else, isn’t that effecting the artist in a negative way. One quote that jumped out to me was “Effective Altruism would sometimes say that the thing you most enjoy isn’t the most moral thing to do.” I just thought this was contradictory to what they believe in and relates to art not contributing to the world. If you do something that you enjoy, isn’t that making you happy? And isn’t that what EA is all about?